Energy Efficient Vortex Generator Inspired by Trout

Innovation: Industry

Watreco

2010

Image: Jeff Huan / Pixabay / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

Move in/on Liquids

Water is not only the most abundant liquid on earth, but it’s vital to life–so it’s no surprise that the majority of life has evolved to thrive on and under its surface. Moving efficiently in and on this dense and dynamic substance presents unique challenges and opportunities for living systems. As a result, they have evolved countless solutions to optimize drag, utilize surface tension, fine tune buoyancy, and take advantage of various types of currents and fluid dynamics. For example, sharks can slide through water by reducing drag due to their streamlined shape and specially shaped features on their skin.

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Capture, Absorb, or Filter Solids

Some living systems must secure solid particles such as sediment, usually to keep the particles from hindering their health or activity. The most common way in which they do this is through filtering. To be effective, a filtering system must be appropriate to the sizes of solid particles to be captured and must capture only what is needed. It must also be effective in the appropriate media–air, water, or sometimes solids like soil. An example is mangroves, which are trees that grow along ocean coasts. Their root system slows down and settles sediment out of the water, building up soil to support the mangrove ecosystem.

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Capture, Absorb, or Filter Liquids

The most common liquid used by living systems is water, which they require to survive. But there are many other liquids that provide nourishment, play a role in defense mechanisms, or serve other purposes. Water varies in its availability; it is sometimes plentiful and sometimes very scarce or only available as fog or mist. To minimize the energy required to capture, absorb, or filter liquids, living systems have strategies that take advantage of the unique properties of the given liquid. For example, water moves from a gaseous to liquid state when it encounters a surface colder than the air. Plants in forests that experience fog and clouds more than rain have strategies that condense liquid water from moist air.

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Patents

Vortex Process Technology by Watreco shapes fluid flow to efficiently generate a well-defined vortex at a considerably lower pressure and flow.

Benefits

Energy efficient
Environmentally friendly

Applications

Water treatment
Water tanks and storage
Ice rinks and arenas
Water aeration

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure

The Challenge

Water treatment technologies are often composed of chemicals and/or detergents, which can be harmful to certain organisms. Many technologies also have many moving parts that are vulnerable to damage.

Innovation Details

Vortex Process Technology (VPT) has a unique shape that causes water to quickly swirl down an ever-tightening coil of channels, inspired by the way trout catch food in flowing water. This forces contaminants and/or air bubbles (depending on the application) into a column in the center of the swirling water. At the end of the process a vacuum quickly sucks this column out, leaving water with the desired properties behind.

The vortex generator shapes the fluid flow in three stages: preformer, channels, and the vortex chamber. Photo: Watreco.

Biological Model

Trout have to swim in waters where the current can be quite strong. They often have to swim in place for a period of time, waiting for food to float by in the current. In order to hold steady, the trout opens its mouth and lets the water rush in. The water is forced into ever-tightening vortices as it passes through the gills and back into the current. This allows the trout to hold steady even in inconsistent or violent flows.

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